Field Signs - a Round Up

 Burrow

 Single starry pawprint

Above and below, latrines

 Lots of water vole footprints.

Grocontinental

Shy vole

 Above: two feeding stations and a piece of vole-cut stalk.

 Latrine sites

Looks like a burrow but it's actually just a trackway through the grass into the water.

It was great to be invited onto Grocontinental's site for a water vole survey, given that normal public access has been closed and the footpath fenced off. I'm pleased to say we found vole signs, even after all the building and landscaping work that's been going on, and the company say they want to improve water vole habitat and make a feature of the ditch for their employees to enjoy. That's a terrific aim, and encouraging to hear.

We've also been assured we can go back and survey the site at regular intervals in the future.

More on Habitat

Lots of Edgeley Road voles tonight. At least five, plus a water shrew

A water vole trackway, off Edgeley Road.

Water vole feeding station (also Edgeley Road)

I include this photo of a brook near Coton because at first glance it looks as if it would be ideal for water voles. The water's clear, not too fast-moving, the banks are soft and there's plenty of vegetation for hiding and food. But a closer look at the bottom will tell you it's no go - bare stony shingle covers the stream bed, and w-vs require silt or mud they can kick up to hide from predators when startled. Clear water makes them just too vulnerable.

Reading the banks

Field off Edgeley Road, location of burrow/slipway photos below.

Erosion reveals this old burrow in horizontal cross section.

Slipways or trackways running into the water from burrows.

Occupied burrow

Droppings at the railway bridge by Homebase, but are they rat or w-v? Both animals tend to make use of this handy brick!
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Still a few weeks too early for real signs to emerge, I'd have thought, though a fortnight of days as warm as today would wake the water voles up I'm sure. But even in the absence of breeding latrines and ostentatious feeding stations it's not too hard to see where the w-vs have been active. There are occupied burrows, for instance, with nibbled grass round the outsides, and lots of slipways into the water. Have to say, though, these don't always come out so clearly in photographs; they're actually more obvious in the field.

Spring signs, and an old friend

Finally we have a bit of warm weather, and there are some promising signs by White Lion Meadow car park. This feeding by the bridge, with its classic slanted ends; a lot of prints (see the trackway, third photo down); and what I'm fairly sure is a water vole latrine, though I couldn't get very near to see any detail.

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And here's our blackbird again - this must be his fourth year, I think.